(NEW YORK) Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP announced today that the firm has expanded its Real Estate practice with the addition of nine new professionals including veteran real estate and housing attorneys Ken Lore, Glenn Miller, Martin Siroka and Jeff Scharff who will be based in New York and Washington, DC.
“This is a highly accomplished group of attorneys with an excellent reputation in the real estate industry as evidenced by the many noteworthy projects they’ve handled,” said Katten Chairman Vincent A.F. Sergi. “They’ve worked on some of the most significant real estate deals in the past few years and will be a great addition to the well-respected attorneys who make up Katten’s already strong Real Estate practice.”
This group has represented owners and lenders on many billions of dollars of new developments in recent years, including:
- Lore, Scharff and Miller led the legal team on a deal involving construction of Gotham West, the 1,238-unit residential complex occupying an entire Manhattan city block, due to open this summer.
- Lore also led a large team of lawyers in the negotiation of the complex restructuring of hundreds of millions of dollars of financing as part of a $1.4 billion project in Orange County, California, including 5,000 homes, more than 5 million square feet of commercial property and outdoor recreational space approximately twice the size of New York’s Central Park.
- Siroka led the group working on the tax-exempt bond financing of the first residential building to be constructed in a $4.9 billion Atlantic Yards development in Brooklyn. The low-, moderate- and middle-income apartment building will be the world’s tallest modular tower when completed.
- Siroka also led the legal effort with regard to mortgage financing of 8 Spruce Street in Manhattan, the Frank Gehry-designed 76-story residential rental tower, which was the tallest residential building in the United States when it was completed.
- Scharff represented a joint venture in the acquisition of a 19-property portfolio of multifamily apartments in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia for a multi-phase deal worth over $400 million.
“We are thrilled to welcome Ken, Glenn, Marty and Jeff to our team. Their strong reputations, excellent and extensive clientele, and deep knowledge and experience in real estate will be a great complement to our practice and to the firm as a whole,” said David Bryant, national head of Katten’s Real Estate practice. “The group is well-suited in many areas to help us strengthen and expand the services we provide to the real estate industry.”
Lore will head Katten’s East Coast Real Estate group and serve on the firm’s Board of Directors.
Lore focuses his practice on complex equity and debt real estate transactions, advising developers, underwriters, banks, pension funds, investment companies, mortgage bankers and many others in all aspects of financing and developing complex real estate projects, affordable housing and public-private partnerships. He has significant experience in the restructuring and disposition of distressed assets such as mortgage loans, mezzanine loans, asset-backed securities and other asset types.
Miller counsels clients on tax matters for a wide range of domestic and international transactions, including taxable and tax-free acquisitions and dispositions, financing structures and post-transaction tax planning affecting both buyers and sellers. He has particular experience with structured finance and securitization transactions and is a nationally known authority on affordable housing and historic tax credits.
Miller and Lore created a tax structure that permitted the first practical syndication of a so-called “80-20” mixed-use low-income project—a structure that is now used in transactions nationwide. Miller also created the structure that allowed for the first tax-exempt bond financed “step in shoes” condominium-to-affordable housing transaction in the United States. This same structure was later employed in a transaction that won a New York developer the Wall Street Journal Real Estate “Deal of the Week.”
Scharff has nearly 30 years of comprehensive real estate and structured finance experience. His practice includes all aspects of acquisitions and financings including representing major national developers in large, complex tax-exempt bond financings.
Siroka has nearly 30 years of experience in public finance; real estate financing; multifamily housing development; federal, state and local government housing programs; and mortgage insurance. He represents multifamily residential developers, owners and managing agents, borrowers and lenders and many others. Siroka has worked on many issues involving the low-income housing tax credit as well as rental developments subject to New York State’s Mitchell Lama Law and Redevelopment Companies Law.
All four partners were previously with Bingham McCutchen LLP, where Lore co-chaired the Real Estate practice. Five other counsel and associate attorneys, also from Bingham, will join the new team at Katten, which was named 2013 “Law Firm of the Year” in Real Estate as part of the U.S. News - Best Lawyers® “Best Law Firms” ranking. The latest hires follow the firm’s recent additions to its Real Estate group of Bob Asher in London, Michael McBride in New York and John Domby in Charlotte.
Katten’s Real Estate practice is one of the largest and most sophisticated in the United States, providing the legal advice, industry-focused experience and business savvy necessary for success in today’s rapidly changing real estate and capital markets. The firm’s integrated team of insolvency, tax, litigation, corporate, securities and public finance professionals provides a full range of transactional and dispute resolution services.
